Merrill Heatter Productions
Background: After Merrill Heatter ended his partnership with Bob Quigley in 1981 and Heatter-Quigley Productions closed its doors and folded into Filmways Television, he formed his own production company under the name of "Merrill Heatter Productions, Inc." producing game shows with markedly mixed success until 1990. On September 28, 1998, Heatter sold the worldwide rights to his solo-developed game show formats to King World (now "CBS Television Distribution"). CBS Enterprises (King World's former parent company) licensed the rights to Heatter's shows worldwide for a period of time. Currently, most of the Merrill Heatter library is handled by several companies such as the following: Fantasy and High Rollers are owned by Sony Pictures Television, and those distributed by Orion Television Syndication are owned by MGM Holdings Inc. On July 21, 2008, Heatter returned to television and created Catch 21, the revival of Gambit for GSN. However, Heatter retired again in 2011 after Catch 21 ''was cancelled that same year. 1st Logo (October 26, 1981-January 5, 1990) Nickname: "mh" Logo: After the credit roll finishes, this is abruptly superimposed on the screen: A stylized, conjoined lowercase "mh" (in the same Bimini font as the Heatter-Quigley "H-Q" logo, this time thicker with another "mh" centered inside), in gold or in white, with MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTIONS, INC. (or just "MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTIONS"), in white or gold, centered under it. A copyright stamp may be shown underneath. Variants: *On ''The New Battlestars, this logo had a tacky flipping effect over the ending scene. *On the 1983 un-aired game show pilot Malcolm, the logo slides in from the left. Also, an "S" is cheaply tacked onto the wording, which originally read "MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTION". *On the 1986 pilot for the 1987 revival of High Rollers, the "mh" sign zooms up, along with the company name fading in. *On Fantasy, a short-lived 1982-83 NBC game w/Peter Marshall that was from Merrill Heatter, Earl Greenburg, and CPT, there was an in-credit card that read, "Fantasy ''is a Merrill Heatter Production and Earl Greenburg Production in association with...," then CPT's 80's Coke Lady (or on GSN's rebroadcast of one show as presented above, the Columbia TriStar Television logo). All of this was preceded by a 1982 or '83 CPT copyright. *On the 1990 ''Gambit pilot, we see just an in-credit text reads "A Merrill Heatter Production in association with...", then it brings forth to the Orion Television Entertainment logo. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds/Voice-over: The closing theme of the show, usually accompanied by an announcer who says: "title is a Merrill Heatter Production!" or "This has been a Merrill Heatter Production!". There was no voice-over for the ending of Fantasy or the pilot of Malcolm. Availability: Was seen on All-Star Blitz, Battlestars, and The Last Word among others. Unless Heatter's solo efforts are picked up for Game Show Network's schedule, you'll only see this on off-air tapes. 2nd Logo (July 6, 1987-December 18, 1988) Logo: Superimposed on the screen, two small gold "mh" logos from the previous logo come zooming together in a residue-trailing effect from the top right and bottom left. Then the logo flashes, them we see the "mh" logo from before, this time in chrome. Then the text "MERRILL HEATTER PRODUCTIONS" zooms up. The logo shines. Sometimes a copyright notice below. Variant: On the 1988 pilot of The Last Word we simply see a still version of the logo zooming over the last scene of the credits. FX/SFX: The trailing and the zooming. Music/Sounds: The end theme of the show, usually accompanied by an announcer (Dean Goss) saying "This has been a Merrill Heatter Production!". There's no voiceover on the 1988 Last Word pilot. Availability: Seen on two short-lived series Bargain Hunters and the 1987 revival of High Rollers (for Orion Television Syndication). 3rd Logo (1993) Logo: The text "Merrill Heatter Productions, Inc." is seen in a "casual" white font, displayed over a blue-ish "paint streak", which is in turn superimposed over a studio background. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: Just the end theme of the Hollywood Teasers pilot, with Charlie Tuna announcing "Hollywood Teasers is a Merrill Heatter Production!" Availability: Extinct. Only seen on the failed Hollywood Teasers pilot. 4th Logo (July 21, 2008-July 1, 2011) Logo: On a black background, we see "MERRILL HEATTER" stacked on top of each other in a big gold font aligned left and lighting up word by word once with the phrase "PRODUCTIONS, INC". in white below. Variant: Starting on season 3 of Catch 21, the logo appears in-credit. FX/SFX: "MERRILL HEATTER" lighting up. Music/Sounds: The end theme of the show. Availability: Currently seen on reruns of Catch 21 on GSN and Bounce TV.